Jeanpragot

@dram12 Good news. I am glad you are having a four-feet family, plus your daughters of course. Looking back the best have been my dogs and cats and my one daughter and her boys... All more than grown up now...
            I'm fine as can be, now pushing 84. Age brings slowdowns and limitations, the worse -unexpectedly- being balance. I have taken a few bad falls, the last on ice covered by an inch of fluffy snow... l'm telling you this, given your move north. Be careful.
            I am enjoying your take on the Vikings. They were my favorite reading characters long before I found genealogy and Northerners on both sides of my family. One was most likely a mercenary given a farm in reward for services in one of the many wars (colourfull stuff with one reigning duke dying on an iced up lake and almost devored by wolves...) long before the French revolution. Then, the Kings of Sweden were supplying warriors to other monarchs of Europe... My mother's maiden name came to Lorraine with someone from a farm, probably in Denmark, dedicated to Hella where the help traditionally got the same moniker 'Helle.'
            Anyway, take care and my best to you and family.

@Jeanpragot I'm in the ssame boat as you and as much as I hate to say it, that's why I switched to Mac. Windows 11 is a cesspit. I don't like it at all. Windows 7, and downwards (except for Vista) were the absolute best, in my opinion. I don't like being harrassed for needless updates by companies. 
            
            It really does suck that you had to upgrade like that. Windows are ruining their software with needless stuff. I remember when it was all simple, easy to use and no fuss. Everything was how you wanted it to be. 
            
            Yes, Apple's not much better but at least they don't force you to update and you can turn it off. Windows should have it in 11, and make it easy to do so. It's not fair of people who want/need an older version of Windows.
            
            I have a gaming laptop, but it doesn't get pulled out as much now  'cause I have a virtual machine installed on my main machine. It works, but it's not as good as the original XP (it's also for gaming).

@wontlookdown Thanks for the moral support... :))

I didn’t really like 11 but it’s better than 8. I hated that Generation. Sucks that you finally had to upgrade though. 

I just saw this, @jeanpragot -Thank you so much for recommending my story! :) 

Elon Musk is such a dirty word right now. LOL! That was a fun story though. ❤️

Ah le Grand Est!!! A wonderful and much undervalued region. We travel to France every year. I love it. We visited New England once, but we found it a bit too... European for our liking. But it is beautiful, especially the Maine coast. White dear - oh dear. Not so bad here, but I can imagine them being a real pest. As to bambi - eh bien, ils font un dîner excellent! We have more problems with wild boar. They dig everything up, and if you hid upon a horde of them, you better run the other way. They're really "feroce".

@lhansenauthor l was born in France, in the eastern part of Lorraine where the weather can be frisky and now l live in New England's northeast which is even more cold. Still, most mid-latitudes ornamentals do quite well here and even flower for longer periods in the cool summers.
            I made a living as a landscaper for a couple decades, though that profession has taken a hit. The cussed White Tail Deer was protected awhile for the hunting lobby and now the darn things are everywhere in towns or villages where they eat everything that's not in enclosed space. lt's insane, but they cannot be rid off; would you shoot Bambi???

Sounds like you're somewhere more Northern than I am. We live in the foothills of Frankenstein Castle, close to one of the sunniest areas in Germany. I have to keep my bleeding hearts on the Northern side - in the south facing garden, they get fried, the poor things. Instead, we have hemp plants. But they're not as attractive...